Dead or Alive
by Zaknafein
Summary: My attempt at a One Piece crossover. Suggestions welcome. Expmntl.


Disclaimer: I do not own any of this.  
-------------------------------------------Wanted Dead or Alive : Ranma Saotome  
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Ranma sat down on one side of the expensive mahogany table, filled with ancient scrolls and modern manuals.

Some detailing chronicles of an age that had long since past in this world. Deep in thought, his mind was once more consumed with thoughts on the oh so familiar dilema. Should he take the offer?

It had been a few weeks ago, just before the incident with Saffron. Nodoka had decided that it was time for her son to know the truth about herself, a secret that she had kept for many years, and also a large part of the reason that Genma was so deathly afraid of her.

She was not from this world

Surprised by this revelation, but not willing to doubt her word Ranma had asked her to explain. She had then proceeded to tell him of a world still embroiled within a time of grand adventure and high drama, where pirates roamed the seas in droves and the marines where the stalwart force of order. She had told him the legend of gold roger and the pirate age that followed, of giant sea creatures, and mysterious artifacts.

She had been a simple village girl herself, fallen victim to that ever troublesome aspect of the human psyche, curiosity. You see, in this world existed a type of fruit that endowed a person with a specific type of power. The devil fruit. Nodoka herself had eaten a fruit called the gate gate fruit. This allowed her to create portals, they could be used for transportation, battle, or stealth. When her village had been attacked and destroyed by pirates in her late teens, Nodoka had fled in terror. In desperation she had created a gate with one thought in mind, get me somewhere that they can never reach me.

She had found herself in Japan.

Unfamiliar with the culture and unable to survive on her own she had been living in the wild, stealing what she needed to survive through the powers of the devil fruit.

It was here that she had first met Genma, and he had taken an interest in her, with little other opportunity to integrate with society on her own, and no records to show that she even existed, she was left with only one option, marriage. Hence Nodoka had took what she could get, and that was that.

After so many months watching her son be abused and taken advantage of, Nodoka had decided to offer him a way out.

A trip to her home world for a few years.

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He was getting ahead of himself, turning away from the detailed notes laid out across the tabletop Ranma's thoughts now turned to a decided feeling of relief, just as they always did on his weekend visits to his mothers inner city penthouse.

He was tired of the act.

This fallacy that he had carefully constructed to cover those aspects of himself he had been trained to hide from a young age. It was a long list, and the face that he presented to the world at large was so far from his true persona it was laughable.

He had always had an abnormally sharp mind, talking and walking unusually early in life, and later, the ease with witch he had learnt to read and write. His mother had been the only one to notice however, as Genma had spent those first few years of his life traveling the countryside furthering his martial arts skills. By the time he was four he could have surprisingly lucid conversation with her.

So he was not surprised when one day during his fifth year his mother had carefully entered his room and quietly told him of the pact that Genma had forced upon them. Even at that age he could understand the gravity of the situation, Genma had a decided idea of what constituted proper behavior, an idea totally different from everyone else's.

So it was with little surprise and less reluctance that he agreed to his mothers advice and instructions for the trip. It also helped that she assured him that she would visit him often.

Act as you judge your father would expect while in his presence, I will come to visit you whenever I am able, the rest of the time you are to learn all that you can. That had proven to be surprisingly often, every night when Genma went of on his own to the bars, his mother would arrive, she helped him to learn new things and told him of herself and the world. He had never managed to figure out just how she could always been able to find him, he was just glad that she had.

Well, he knew now.

Gaining strength from his mothers advice he had taken the advice to heart, and still lived by it to this day to be honest. To his father and all of those that had a hand in his daily life he was simply a dumb jock with one interest in mind, martial arts.

And wait, oh yes, Akane.

He was in love with Akane Tendo.

Give me a brake!

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None of them even suspected, despite the numerous holes that this false face contained. He, apparently had not been in school for the last few years, and yet had easily gained access to an education. He could learn techniques ridiculously fast, no matter how complex, yet had no idea when it came to anything else. He had no people skills, when it was common knowledge that Genma had used him as a bartering chip during his training, something that implied he had a modicum of familiarity with the people involved.

Oh and the most glaring of all, the level of his martial arts. He had trained every day of his life pretty much twelve hours each day since he was five years old, and apparently his strength only compared to that of a guy that spent more than half of each day trying to find where he was?

Come on!

His strength and speed alone was far above that of Ryoga. Purely from all of the training he had undergone, and when it came to ki. He was on a totally different level. Ranma had first been introduced to the concept of ki when he was eleven. At a stage in training where Genma would leave him with various sensei for weeks at a time to learn new styles, his current master had told him that he was ready for the knowledge.

ki, the power of the body built up by constant training of both the body and mind.

chi, the energy in all things other than yourself.

Ki is the foundation, the energy that you were first made aware of, its primary purpose was to strengthen the body. As it was a part of you, it was fairly easy to access.

For a novice, a persons strongest emotion could be used to access the pool of power, it drained the user abnormally fast however, and prolonged use made ones personality reflect that emotion to an outrageous point. This method is just to get one used to the manipulation of energy, and instill familiarity.

Once this had been achieved he moved on to access the ki based upon willpower, this level allows you to focus your energy according to your own want. Not nearly as draining, it required precise concentration, and allowed one to begin to use the power of ki subconsciously. During this stage one fully mastered the ki within and forced it to automatically strengthen the body, you also learnt to prevent the used ki from escaping naturally, causing the growth of ones ki to accelerate.

Now chi was the process of taking energy from the world around you, allowing one to retain their ki and extend their stamina. It required the development of a unique sense of self and your surroundings. However, once attained it's uses were innumerable. Attack or defense, elemental or pure force, its versatility was ludicrous. The only limitation was that should you try and utilize more chi than the ki contained in your own body, your body would overload. At best you would be unconscious for an entire day, at worst you would die instantly, consumed by your own power.

He had finally mastered the use of chi when he was fifteen, it had taken five years but he now had the ability to evolve on every level. His father however was totaly unaware of this fact. When Ryoga had first attacked him with his new "ultimate" technique, the shi shi hokudan, he had to force himself not to laugh.

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Anyway he was getting ahead of himself again, looking around the lush interior of the room, Ranma was again reminded of his first meeting with Nodoka the night after arriving back in Tokyo. She had not visited him since they had arrived in China so he had begun to get worried. It was with decided relief that Ranma had greeted her arrival, eager for someone else's perspective on the curse and what it entailed.

She had led the bedraggled boy deep into town, to a large apartment complex and then up into the penthouse. Amazed Ranma had stumbled around, were they rich now? His memories from childhood had them living in a small house in the suburbs, and they were accurate, he should know, as he had a photographic memory. When asked how she had afforded the place she had been evasive, only telling Ranma to not mention it to his father.

She had then encouraged him to pour out the events of the last few months, and had held him close as he reveled his secret turmoil, nevertheless she was proud.

He had continued to do this each weekend, and those afternoons after school when Akane 'hit' him with the mallet. In matter of the fact the thing that Akane hit was just an illusion he had created by modifying the splitting cat hairs. Something he had done for every technique used against him in the last year, learn them then make any possible modifications.

He liked Moose's hidden weapons best of all, it allowed him to conceal the few personal items he had received from his mother, a laptop, a watch, a gold necklace. And also let him keep a good supply of cash on him at all times. If Nabiki only new the truth she would be green with envy.

His mother should be back soon, and after some careful thought, and the afternoon reading about the grand line, Ranma had decided that he liked the idea of going to an alternate world and decided that he would tell his mother when she arrived home.

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Hearing the telltale swoosh of air that signaled the opening of one of his mothers gates, Ranma turned and rose from his position seated at the bench. He found her standing before the refrigerator, a cool glass of water clutched in one hand.

"Mum, I have decided to take your offer, what do I have to do?"

Taking a moment to study him intently, she obviously found what she was looking for, she carefully reached out to take hold of his right shoulder.

"I am proud of you Ranma, you should not have to put up with all that you have been"

And with these words she began to detail all that they would need to do over the next few weeks. Ranma would need to learn a few things over the next week to fit in with his upcoming surroundings, namely the operation of a different types of sailing craft and their strengths and weaknesses.

He would also need some form of transportation, preferably for both land and sea journeys. For this Nodoka told her son that she would simply buy him a boat and a dirtbike.

When queried about the availability of fuel in her home world he was told that their was none. Confused, he asked how he could maintain the boat and motorbike in that case.

Clearly amused, Nodoka replied by placing a large glass jar on the table then filling another glass jar about twice its size with water. She then proceeded to make a gate between the two, and using it as an example explained her idea to make two permanent gates, one for each of the vehicles, placing one end in the gas repository at the docks in the industrial district, the other within the two fuel tanks. Similarly she would place a large jerry can of oil with a gate as well, hence there would be no worries on that front.

She said that she would visit him once a month as well, just to check up.

Amazed, yet happy with her answer, Ranma was then informed that he would have to learn how to operate both items. Hence his next few weeks were pretty busy.

Finally, the day arrived, he had both vehicles secured in a warehouse fronting on to a river in the countryside about ten miles outside of Tokyo proper. Nodoka gated the pair to the warehouse and boarded the boat with her son. Checking that he had everything onboard, Ranma started up the inboard motor.

Once the deep rumbling of the powerful engine could be heard, Nodoka turned and smiled at him and opened a large portal in front of the boat. Smiling to himself, Ranma pushed down the accelerator.

Here we go.

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-------------------------------------------Rough Draft Done. Comments Welcome.

By the way, what do you think his boat should be? Old or new?

At the moment I like the idea of a modern boat. The fairline squadron 74.

There is a link to the boat in my profile.


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